Category: The Current Situation

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The Current Situation

Before you complain about U.S. gas prices…

Map of gasoline prices around the world for June 7. 2022.
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There’s a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about gas prices here in the U.S., but it’s not coming from me, because:

  1. Gas prices are a bargain here compared just about every other place on the planet, and
  2. My car use is so low that I go to the gas station only once every 4 – 5 weeks, and I regard my gas tank the same way cats regard their food bowls: half-full means empty.

In case you’re wondering how I get my errands and shopping done, I do most of them by doing about 10 kilometres each day on the conveyance pictured below:

Joey deVilla’s bike in front of a flower stand.
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The Current Situation

Happy Canada Day! Enjoy some Canadian flags.

For the longest time, Canada didn’t have an official flag. Instead, it made unofficial use of its variant of the British Red Ensign, a red flag with the Union flag in the upper left-hand corner — the canton — and a Canadian-themed coat of arms in the rightmost area — the fly. From just after Confederation to 1921, the flag looked like this:

canadian red ensign 1

…and then from 1921 to 1957, it looked like this:

canadian red ensign 2

…and from 1957 to 1965, it looked like this:

canadian red ensign 3

Through the 20th century, there were attempts to get an official flag made, and it took the Great Canadian Flag Debate of 1964 — nearly 100 years after the formation of the country — to finally get a flag that was all our own. There was bitter debate over its design, which was captured nicely in this painting by Rex Woods, who could be described as Canada’s answer to Norman Rockwell:

picking a canadian flag
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Of the designs featured in the paining, I’m kind of fond of the “psychedelic maple leaf” one:

psychedelic canadian flag

In the end, we got the simple, sharp, and iconic design that we know and love as the present-day Canadian flag. Happy Canada Day, everyone!

canadian flag

 

Categories
America The Current Situation The Good Fight

Timely: Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn”

Zen Pencils — “Cartoon quotes from inspirational folks” — take some of the best quotes and statements out there and present them in comic form. They just updated their rendition of Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” statement to fit the current times. It’s worth reading:

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 1 of 8

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 2 of 8

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes.”

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 3 of 8

“Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small.”

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 4 of 8

“It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you.”

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 5 of 8

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 6 of 8

“But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death…” Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 7 of 8

“…narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does.”

Sophie Scholl’s “I choose my own way to burn” — part 8 of 8

“I choose my own way to burn.”

Sophie Scholl

Sophie Scholl was a resistance fighter against the Nazis in Germany in the early 1940s. She was a key member of Weiße Rose — German for “White Rose” — a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich.  Weiße Rose distributed leaflets, painted graffiti, and took part in actions to call out the Nazis and inspired resistance against fascism.

The Nazis executed her at the age of 21 for treason on February 22, 1943.

Categories
The Current Situation The Good Fight

“Just not a political person”

“Just Not a Political Person” poster
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My response to “I’m just not a political person” is usually either “Bullshit” or “So, you’re just useless then.”

To borrow a paragraph from Sami Fishbein Sage’s essay, Unpacking “I’m Not A Political Person”:

It’s A Privilege To “Not Be Political”

When you say you’re not political, you’re telling on yourself. What you’re saying is that you’ve only been on the receiving end of all these invisible perks the government provides, rather than being on the side that suffers from the lack of them or that is even actively harmed by them. For example, it’s only because of active participation in politics that same-sex marriages are legal. That happened less than five years ago, and it would no doubt be the dream of a conservative Supreme Court to overturn it. Try telling your gay friend, whose marriage status could be in real jeopardy based on election outcomes, that you’re not political and see how they react.

By the bye, you can order this print on Etsy.

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America The Current Situation

Very timely pictures aplenty (June 25, 2022)

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Money The Current Situation

Also: You can’t make guacamole or toast with Bitcoin.

Tweet: “Turns out avocados were the real inflation hedge all along.” with chrat showing an overlay of 2020 to 2022 price trends for Bitcoin and avocados.
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Here’s Tracy Alloway’s original tweet.

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America The Current Situation

Useful tribal knowledge for a mass shooting era

Keyboards on a wall display at a pawn shop under a “KORG” banner.
Keyboards at Little River Pawn, Little River, South Carolina.

Chad Baker posted this bit of advice on Facebook back in 2018, and I became aware of it yesterday thanks to Tim Tate:

Apparently this tribal knowledge has not been passed down.

If someone at school is bullying you, go to any pawn shop (there’s one in every town) DO NOT GO TO THE RIFLE WALL, TURN AROUND and go to the OTHER wall, and buy one of these:

An electric bass guitar with a price tag.

Or, if your preference is towards keyboards, something like this:

Joey deVilla’s collection of electronic keyboards and accordions.

You can purchase one at any age. There is no background check. They are cheap. There is no waiting period. You can open carry them anywhere.

Take it home. Practice. Talk to other dorks that wear the same shirts you do. Start a band. Get loud. Scream about how rotten it is that everyone is against you and no one will sleep with you. Get it all out.

DO NOT KILL ANYONE.

A family in Austin, Texas posing with “80% of their gun collection” laid out on their large back deck.
“Joel, 44, and Lynne, 43, in Austin, Texas, with their children and 80 per cent of their gun collection.” From a series of photos by Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti, who traveled the U.S. taking photos of Americans and their guns. See Tony Pierce’s Facebook post for more from the series.

Now don’t get me wrong: guns are cool and fun to fire (my great-uncle’s company is the Philippines’ biggest Winchester importer), but too many people in the U.S. have either made it the god they worship, or at least a core part of their identity. And as a result, the guns come out whenever they feel threatened, or even just slighted — as a response to bullying, the bogus “Great Replacement,” or even when a fellow movie-goer throws popcorn at them.

Infographic: The Social brain and Music, showing the mental health benefits of playing and listening to music
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The old canard that hardcore misinterpreters of the Second Amendment like to pull out after every shooting is “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a mental health problem” (and while mental health does play a role, science — and Science — point out that the issue actually is an over-proliferation of guns).

But let’s assume that it’s just a mental health issue. Want a fix? Get more people to pick up musical instruments instead of guns. We have lots of research and evidence showing the cognitive and emotional benefits of listening and playing music, and lots of research on the deleterious effects of guns and “gun thinking.”

Anitra Pavka and Joey deVilla at their wedding, with Joey playing accordion.

Pick up an instrument. Master a skill that will pay off in so many ways, from dexterity to improved brain function to confidence discipline and time management to creativity to making friends.